Hi all,
It seems there are many books out there on how to build cabinets but not many with details on how to run a small production cabinet shop.
For instance, when producing a kitchen full of cabinets, drawers and doors I know there are systems out there for marking/numbering the different components to keep track of them but I can’t seem to find any information on that sort of thing.
Does anyone know of a book that deals with that sort of information?
Thanks!
Tom
You Don’t Know. You Don’t Want to Know. You Aren’t Going to Know.
Replies
Jim Tolpins "Working at Woodworking". I really enjoyed it, lots of the type of info you are looking for.
Check out Danny Proulx and Jim Toplin's books. Do you get the trade journals for the pro's like Cabinetmaker, Custom Woodworking, Wood and Wood Products??? They have articles on such topics. Great free magazine for folks in the business.
ID,
When I went into business for myself building kitchen cabinets, I was fortunate to have a good friend who was a cabinet salesman, and he gave me a spec book for his company's cabinets. Shows every cabinet with a diagram showing dimensions and has a table in the back that shows sizes for drawer fronts and doors, with half or full overlay construction. It was invaluable to me. I mark the plywood carcass components with a marker on the edge (base 30 side, base 30 bottom, etc...). I mark all the face frame parts with the abbreviated cabinet name in pencil on the side during rough milling, then when I take the last pass on the jointer which removes my abbreviation, I transfer the name to the end grain, which usually gets covered in the glue-up. When I glue the face frame up, I mark the top of each face frame with the cabinet name. This way your completed cabinet has it's name written on the top, you can tell at a glance what it is and where it goes. The top of the base cabinet face frames gets a counter top over it, so nobody sees your marks after the countertop gets installed. Same with the wall cabinets, I mark them on the top of the face frame as well, nobody sees them once they are installed, and it helps keep track of everything during installation. I have 34 cabinets in my shop now, and about halfway through the face frames. Everything is marked or there would be mass confusion. Hope this helps, any questions I'll be glad to help if I can.
Lee
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